See the Far Side of the Moon: Incredibly Detailed Pictures From Artemis I Orion Close Lunar Flyby


The Earth is seen setting from the far side of the Moon just beyond the Orion spacecraft in this video taken on the sixth day of the Artemis I mission by a camera on the tip of one of Orion’s solar arrays. The spacecraft was preparing for the Outbound Powered Flyby maneuver which would bring it within 80 miles of the lunar surface, the closest approach of the uncrewed Artemis I mission, before moving into a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon. The spacecraft entered the lunar sphere of influence on Sunday, November 20, making the Moon, instead of Earth, the main gravitational force acting on the spacecraft. Credit: NASA

On the sixth day of the Artemis I mission, Orion made a close flyby of the Moon, passing about 81 miles (130 km) above the surface. During the close flyby, Orion’s optical navigation camera captured black-and-white images of craters on the Moon below. Orion uses the optical navigation camera to capture imagery of the Earth and the Moon at different phases and distances, providing an enhanced body of data to certify its effectiveness under different lighting conditions as a way to help orient the spacecraft on future missions with crew.

The Earth and Moon are tidally locked, which means that the Moon spins on its axis exactly once each time it orbits our planet. Because of this, people on Earth only ever see one side of the Moon. In fact, humans didn’t see the lunar far side until a Soviet spacecraft flew past in 1959. This side we never see is known as the “far side of the Moon.” Sometimes it is called the “dark side of the Moon,” which some people consider a misnomer because it gets just as much sunlight as the near side of the Moon. However, “dark” in this case is referring to unknown, rather than a lack of light.

Here are the detailed images of the Moon captured by Orion’s optical navigation camera:

Orion Far Side of Moon 1Orion Far Side of MoonOrion Far Side of Moon 2 Orion Far Side of Moon 3 Orion Far Side of Moon 5 Orion Far Side of Moon 6 Orion Far Side of Moon 7 Orion Far Side of Moon 8 Orion Far Side of Moon 9 Orion Far Side of Moon 10 Orion Far Side of Moon 11 Orion Far Side of Moon 12 Orion Far Side of Moon 13 Orion Far Side of Moon 14 Orion Far Side of Moon 15


NASA’s live coverage of the Artemis I Close Flyby of the Moon.

44 Comments on "See the Far Side of the Moon: Incredibly Detailed Pictures From Artemis I Orion Close Lunar Flyby"

  1. I see that the NRO is still downgrading photos from the moon. This time its a slight double image. It’s hard to pin down but definitely interfering with clear viewing of the images. Of course the over exposure too. Always with the over exposure. Not too original but keeps us in the dark.

    • These images are taken by relatively low resolution navigation cameras out on the tips of the solar panels. I doubt the National Reconaissance Office ever laid eyes on them , let alone ” degraded” them for public consumption. Why would they ?

    • They have already acknowledged the low resolution pictures and have stated that 70% of the images are being stored instead of sent to earth because of enormous amounts of data that has to be sent along with the images. Once Artemis has landed back home they will have hundreds of GB of high res images.

  2. One photo of the dark side shows what appears to be two airplanes sitting in a crater.
    Any explanation from your side

  3. Since it can take such good pictures I would love to see pictures of everything we have left up there before.

  4. Abraham Lincoln | November 27, 2022 at 5:01 pm | Reply

    I agree the pics are distorted to hide “things”. Some see the oddities in the photos, and some don’t. That’s the standard technique to keep disclosure coming, and allow skepticism at the same time. Brilliant if you think about it. Cheers!

  5. William Adama, the “dark” side of the Moon is only dark from Earth because the Moon is tidally locked with Earth. The Moon gets equal amounts of light on all its sides during its 27.3 Earth-day orbit around us.

    You’re welcome

    • Dude, there is only a FAR SIDE of the moon in a tidally locked rotation. The far side has phases just like the side we see (the near side).

  6. Aha! One big ball of mozzarella just like I suspected!

  7. You people and your idiotic conspiracy theories, did you miss the part where they said those are from a fly by done 81 miles above the surface of the moon ? And how fast do think Orion is moving up there ? Maybe a few hundred miles an hour ? Why wouldn’t be some ” oddities ” in the pics. And why hasn’t anyone been to the moon since the 70s ? Because there is nothing there . And why would they hide nothing ? You people sound stupid.

  8. Let us comment in your page NSASA. You guys should be banned on YouTube 💯

  9. OMG. See also: I saw Elvis sitting in a crater next to Aria 51.

  10. Should have invested in a better camera than salaries and benefits

    • Have you already sent an High rez picture using radio signal?
      Do you know how Much Time This could take just for one on high rez??

      Its a basic notion in communication transfer to take largely in consideration for being able to send any data.

  11. Does the earth have a many craters as the moon? Where did the water come from on earth?

    • Earth had less meteor impacts (so less craters) because the atmosphere stops the smaller ones. The bigger meteor impacts craters get altered over time by weathering, and crushed or subsided by plane tectonic movements.

    • A theory is that Earth was formed when two planets collided. The water was either from one of the planets or was created as a result of the collision. What would Earth look like without the oceans? Very uneven and jagged like a planet that was in a collision.

  12. Look at the first pic why is the earth so small earth is bigger than the moon. Earth should be huge in pictures.pic is fake.

    • Yeah. The moon is smaller than my hand which covers the moon easily.
      So those pics are fake (?).

    • If a man 6’6″ is 500 ft. away from you and a 10 yr. old kid is 5 ft. away from you who will appear bigger? Figure that out and you have your answer.

  13. Are these ^^^^ tinfoil wearing conspiracy nuts for real? The US education system leaves a lot to be desired. A shameful display of idiocy.

  14. Y’all conspiracy theorist come up with the wildest s***

  15. If I have a picture taken of me outside and there is a person who is 7 feet tall standing 100 feet away from me. Why does he appear smaller than me? Is he not really 7 foot tall?

  16. China already landed here last year. U.S is falling behind

  17. Those moon pictures are much worse than those taken years ago from Apollo.
    Moon photos from Apollo 8 were much clearer!

    • There is also a difference due to when and how they’ve been took.

      The Apollo 8 mission’s ones were seen after the ship came back. On the opposite, Orion sent those we’re looking at via radio Signals. Thus, there is a limitation in the length of the data possibly tranferable..so the quality is less desirable.

      We just need to wait for the ship arrival and we’ll be able to look at higher rez pictures.

  18. Oh Mt God, tge moon is flat too

  19. I wanna see the flag and the vehicle way left up there.

  20. Don’t you guys have better cameras nowadays even my phone takes better pictures we’re not in the 50s why can’t you get a good video recording of the whole thing I think you guys are lying

  21. 6th and 8th frame look like a crashed space ship in massive crater

  22. There is no dark side of the moon
    The moon is flat
    Nasa knows this
    Nasa knows alot
    They just ain’t gonna let the cat out of the bag
    TheY tend to shift the truth alot
    TOP SECRET STUFF

  23. 🤔 still looks like 🧀 with those low resolution cameras

  24. It’s almost 2023 and NASA still pretending to own the worst camera technology in the world, despite 60 million dollars a day of our tax dollars. Nobody has or ever will go to the moon. It’s not possible. They keep stringing you guys along for this deception. Wake up. It’s not a conspiracy theory either. Just easy to see facts.

  25. George Langston | December 8, 2022 at 2:40 am | Reply

    …US landed six two-man crews in the 1960s/EARLY 1970s – nobody HERE’s “falling behind China”…

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